Self portrait.

G1, kit lens

Snapped on the wharf in Santa Cruz.

Burning the late night oil.

G1, 24mm, f/6.3, 1/30, ISO 400

Spotted late evening in Carmel, CA.

The G1’s iISO feature (intelligent ISO) determined the ISO 400 setting, presumably predicated on using a shutter speed no slower than 1/30 to avoid camera shake at the 24mm focal length. I was using aperture priority and chose the f/6.3 setting. iISO seems to settle on shutter speeds no slower than 1/30 at medium focal lengths, unless the light is so poor that an even slower shutter speed is called for. At 24mm (48mm full frame equivalent) the 1/30th is like 1/125th with the two stop gain in shake reduction owing to the OIS feature built into the lens. I have the ISO limit set at 800 as at 1600 the image really starts to break up.

The bottom line is that iISO does an excellent job of mitigating camera shake by adjusting ISO, to the extent allowed or possible.

Angry sea.

Spotted on the way down to Carmel last week.

This is the lighthouse keeper’s hut at Pigeon Point, on the Pacific. Selective masking in Lightroom did the trick.

5D, 24-105mm at 24mm, f/4, 1/4000, ISO 250

Realtor talk

Seldom has a subset of the population charged as much or added as little value as the US realtor (translation: real estate broker or shill). A ‘profession’ which charges 5-6% of the selling price for showing you where the bathroom is. It is some testimony to the power of this corrupt lobby that it has survived in a world of internet databases.

Here’s an example of what is known in California as a ‘fixer with an ocean view’ – likely $1mm:

Spotted on Highway one (yes, with an ocean view!) the other day.

Recent snaps focus on abstraction.

I don’t know how these things happen, but now and then my photography hits an abstract streak, much as it did during my recent sojourn in Carmel-by-the-Sea, that prettiest of California’s seaside towns. Maybe it’s just a reaction to all that hard striving retail shopping all around.

On guard. Thinking of Saul Leiter.

Self portrait – I’m shielding my eyes from the bright sun ….

Stairs

Carmel pines

Snapping away

The bride

Fake landscape

Painted painting

All snapped on the G1, mostly in Carmel’s alleyways which, the local guide book informs me, has no fewer than 42 such passageways!